Anders Bergman

 

 

In Dalecarlia, Sweden there was between about 1750-1850 a very active group of folklore painters. There first thing was to say “we are not only craftsmen but true artists”. There motifs origin from the by Albrecht Dürer illustrated bible. They painted beautiful flower ornaments and stories that many times where from the old testimony. Among these painters there was a man called Taisto Lindfors who claimed to have been contacted by three angels” they where like agents in pure flesh” and with help of the three angels he made paintings of the apocalypse.

 

 

These paintings soon got known by the church that banned them. Taisto was accused to be in league with Satan and brought to trial and sent to jail for three years. The paintings where according to roomers not destroyed, but brought to the copper mine in Falun and sunken there. According to church documents the three paintings had the titles that are represented here.

 

What happened to Taisto is not known, what is known is that the church silver was stolen from the church in Gagnef in 1789 and that three weeks later a man with the initials T. Lindfors boarded a boat in Gothenburg with destination to America. A couple of years ago when visiting my hometown I encountered a man who claimed that the paintings really existed and that he had seen them with his own eyes. From what he told me and from what information I have been able to find this is my interpretation.